Dr. Zhang received a B.A. from Renmin University of China, an M.A. from Clark University, and a Ph.D. in economics from Johns Hopkins University. He was a dissertation fellow at the Brookings Institution during 2000-2001, and he worked as a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California before joining Clark in 2006.

Current Research and Teaching

Dr. Zhang specializes in applied microeconomics, with a focus on urban and regional economics. His research interests include regional economic development, entrepreneurship, local employment growth, racial housing segregation and urbanization in China. He teaches microeconomic theory, applied game theory, and urban economics.

"Do Small Businesses Create More Jobs? New Evidence for the United States from the National Establishment Time Series", with David Neumark and Brandon Wall, Review of Economics and Statistics, 2011, 93(1), pp. 16-29.